


Love Makes People Crazy

by Another_Introvert



Series: The Vanishing Acts [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Hurt Peter Parker, NOT STARKER - Freeform, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Ronin Clint Barton, but like a beta version of Ronin, he'd want someone to blame it on, i love Clint i promise, seriously Clint was a fucking mess after the snap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:00:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23512750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Another_Introvert/pseuds/Another_Introvert
Summary: Someone familiar attacks Peter on patrol, grief stricken after losing his whole family. But Peter is able to relate to the guy and sort of get through to him.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: The Vanishing Acts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1675369
Comments: 4
Kudos: 104





	Love Makes People Crazy

In the two months since Peter’s life was torn apart, a variety of things had happened. Things that were devastating, things that were happy, things that were confusing.

But what was happening to Peter now was… he didn’t know how to describe it. It was definitely confusing, somewhat terrifying, but mostly  _ what the actual fuck _ .

Tony had started to calm down about the whole being Spider-man again, and was finally off of medical supervision. He still hadn’t left the compound since he’d gone to find Peter getting his aunt’s ashes. Peter never mentioned it, but he was pretty sure he knew the reason why.

Tony was Iron Man. He’d saved the world before, so everyone expected him to be able to do it again. But in spite of giving it his all, getting impaled by a giant space raisin, and nearly starving to death in space, he failed. And most of the Earth was pretty pissed at him for it. And Tony clearly didn’t want to face the people he’d failed.

But apparently, people wanted to face him and make him pay for failing.

Of course, Peter wasn’t one of those people. Even though he had lost his aunt, he couldn’t bring himself to blame Tony. Had he been the one to snap his fingers? Nope. Therefore, it wasn’t technically his fault.

But Peter didn’t know that Spider-man had a hater.

He first noticed after he’d stopped someone from robbing an apartment. He’d swung onto the roof of the building, eyes scanning the street below for any sign of trouble. But he didn’t expect what looked like a freaking assassin.

The guy was in all black, had a cover on most of his face, and a sword on his back. A sword that looked like it had come straight from Japan or something. He looked pretty badass, nothing like Peter had ever seen. 

There was no one else around, but the guy was for some reason looking at the rooftops. As if he was looking for-

And then the guy saw him.

They stared at each other for a full minute, and Peter had wondered what he should do. The guy hadn’t done anything to him yet. But maybe he should follow him, just in case. Being dressed like an assassin was a bit alarming, but it could just be for self-defense or-

Whatever Peter was expecting, it certainly wasn’t for the guy to pull out a bow and arrow and point it directly at him.

Wait. Bow and arrow. Looking like an assassin. Was that-

Peter didn’t have time to finish his thought, because the guy fired. Swearing, he raced out of the way, jumping over to the next building. When he landed on his feet, he turned around and saw the just before it hit the roof, tiny blue bolts sizzling around it.

“Hey!” Peter screamed down at the guy. “What the Hell was that for?!”

Whoever the son of a bitch was didn’t answer. Instead, he grabbed another arrow, and fired again. This time, Peter jumped off the building and stuck to the wall. There was no avoiding this Arrow Guy. Peter would have to take him down right here.

Peter jumped to the ground, avoiding another arrow. He shot out some webs and managed to hit Arrow Guy’s left hand, but Arrow Guy just pulled out his sword and sliced the web away. Dammit.

“What gives, dude?” Peter shouted. “I didn’t even try anything on you!”

Still nothing. The guy just kept firing, over and over. Peter kept shooting as many webs as he could, but the guy was shockingly fast, dodging every single shot Peter made. Peter had a million questions wracking in his brain. But the one that was front and center was very simple: Should he call Tony?

Tony would probably freak out and rush to the scene if Peter called him, and that was the last thing Peter wanted. Most of the world didn’t know Tony was alive, and those who did know wanted to keep it that way, as people were already furious at the Avengers. Tony being the most hated at the moment didn’t help. But also, this guy seemed pretty tough, so maybe asking for help wouldn’t-

A surge of paralyzing pain shot through Peter’s abdomen. In his time of self-debate, the Arrow Guy had hit him. 

Peter couldn’t hold back a cry when the pain spread throughout his entire body. He felt weirdly heavy all of a sudden, like gravity had just tripled in power. He tried to fight it, tried to stay upright, but his body gave up, and he collapsed next to a car missing its tires.

The pain began to dissipate, but Peter didn’t even have time to be relieved because:

Number One: He couldn’t move.

Number Two: His HUD display vanished, meaning the entire suit was most likely shut

down. 

Holy shit, Tony was going to lose his mind.

Peter’s heart pounded practically out of his chest. He was immobile, defenseless, helpless. He absolutely hated feeling this way, just like he had when he was trapped under that warehouse almost two years ago. It was a horrible feeling. The feeling of not being able to do anything when you’re about to die.

Peter’s eyes widened as Arrow Guy suddenly appeared directly above him. The only part of his face Peter could see was his eyes, but he looked  _ pissed. _

Oh God, he was about to die. This guy was going to kill him and then Tony was going to be destroyed and-

Arrow Guy grabbed his arms and began dragging him towards the nearest building.

What the fuck?

Peter still couldn’t move, but he felt his voice slowly coming back. He whispered as quietly as he could, hoping the guy wouldn’t hear. “Karen? You there?”

No response. Shit, shit, shit.

Arrow Guy threw Peter through a doorway, and he landed hard on his back. Not five seconds later, the guy’s foot slammed onto his chest, holding him in place even though he couldn’t move.

“Where is Stark?”   
  


Oh. So he wasn’t a Spider-man hater.

His voice was dripping with anger, but there was something familiar about it. A small suspicion was building in the back of Peter’s mind, but he kept it to himself, not wanting to be wrong.

“Wha- who- why are you asking me?”

The foot pressed down harder on Peter’s chest. “Knew you were alive. Knew you were on Stark’s side. He’d never pass up a chance to get his hands on someone like you. Now, where is he?”

“How do you even know he’s alive?”   
  


“He’s Tony fucking Stark. The man’s been through a billion hells and has survived every one.”

Well, he had a point. Getting kidnapped by terrorists, flying a nuke into space, destroying an army of murder bots, fighting purple Satan and almost dying in space. And that wasn’t even all of his survival feats. But there was still no way Peter was telling him anything. He wouldn’t put Tony in danger, even if it killed him.

“What do you have against him?” Peter asked, keeping his voice surprisingly calm as he tried to stall. Tony would have been alerted the second the suit went offline, so he was probably rushing over to save Peter now, as much as he didn’t want him to.

The guy laughed. It was a hollow, humorless laugh, and it shook Peter to his core. 

“You’re shitting me, right?” He said. “I’m like everybody else. Pissed that the guy who was so bent on protecting the world that he got half of it killed instead.”

Something passed over his eyes. It was brief, but Peter knew what it was because it was still in his own eyes. Grief.

“Y-your family?” He said gingerly. “Look, he tried-”

“-way too hard? Yeah, I noticed. Look where that got us.”

Peter didn’t know what came over him. Maybe the fact that he was basically immobile and was about to be killed by what looked to be a serial killer. Or that he’d had enough of the world hating on his mentor for trying as hard as he could.

“I’m sorry,” Peter said, not bothering to hide the bite in his voice. “But did you follow a metal donut into space to try and save half the universe? Did you crash said donut on a desolate planet? Did you fight a giant space raisin and get impaled, only for you to watch almost everyone else with you die? Did you come back to Earth three weeks later almost starved to death? Did you take me in when the last of my family was turned to dust?”

Peter didn’t mean to say the last part, because that made it very obvious that he was a kid. But something else changed in man’s eyes when he said that. He stared at Peter for what must have been a few minutes, before he finally took his foot off of Peter’s chest. At that point, Peter had felt the paralyzing feeling start to dissipate. He definitely couldn’t walk, but he was able to sit up and see the guy staring out a broken window.

“That all true?” He asked, and Peter heard a shake in his voice.

Peter didn’t know why he did it. It was a stupid move on his part, but he for some reason felt like the guy needed to see who he was. So, as he saw his HUD slowly glitch back online, he dropped his mask. “Yes. Every word.”

Arrow Guy sighed and turned around, and Peter almost laughed when he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Peter’s face. “Holy fuck- how old are you?”

“Almost seventeen. And if you don’t mind me asking…” He took a deep breath. “...are you who I think you are? You know, bow and arrows, very impressive assassin skills, sounds remarkably similar to someone I sort of met at a German airport two years ago?”   
  


Arrow Guy sighed. “I can see why Stark likes you. You’re clever.”

And then he pulled off the face cover and the hood. Yep, Peter was right.

It was Clint freaking Barton. Hawkeye.

“Knew it.” Peter said, smiling slightly.

Clint sighed, walking over and sitting next to Peter. “You got a name, kid?”

Peter held out his hand. “Peter. Peter Parker. Nice to officially meet you, Mr. Barton.”

Clint took his hand and squeezed it. Peter gave him a sympathetic look. “And I’m really sorry about your family. I know what you’re going through.”

Peter had no idea that Hawkeye had a family before, but he could sense from the broken look on his face that he did. And he’d lost them all. 

“Love makes people crazy.” Peter continued. “Trust me, I know. When I thought I lost everyone who loved me, I tried to take my mind off it by going to Chicago to help the people there.”

“That place is hell on Earth right now.”

“Yeah, you’re not the first person to tell me that.”

Peter pressed his fingers into the palm of his hand. “So… you gonna kill me now?”

Clint sighed again. “I’ve killed a lot of people, but I don’t think I have it in me to kill someone who can’t even vote yet.”

Peter let out a relieved breath. “Thank you. But seriously, just leave Tony alone. Hurting him isn’t going to change anything.”

Clint let go of Peter’s hand and stood up. “I’m sorry, but if I see that man, I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself.”   
  


“Then you better leave, because he’ll probably be here any second. He gets an alert any time there’s something up with my suit. I’ll cover for you, don’t worry.”

Clint pursed his lips, pulling his hood back up. “See you around, kid.”

“Right back at you, Hawkeye.”

And then he climbed out the window, and was gone.

Not thirty seconds later, Peter heard the sound of Iron Man’s repulsors nearing. His legs were beginning to work again, but Peter had to lean on a dust-covered counter in the room to stand up as he tried to formulate a reasonable explanation for why his suit shut down.

Just as he finally made it to his feet, Peter saw the Iron Man suit slam down outside of his building, looking around wildly until it caught sight of Peter, who waved at him with one hand, using the other to keep himself upright.

The suit rushed into the building, its faceplate falling to reveal Tony himself (dammit), looking terrified and relieved. Immediately Tony grabbed Peter in a hug. “Oh my God, your suit, it-it just shut off and you weren’t responding-”

“Tony, Tony, calm down.” Peter said, patting his back. “It’s okay, I’m okay. You didn’t have to come out here.”   
  


Tony pulled back, hands brushing over Peter’s body. “Of course I did! I thought something had happened to you! I thought someone had taken you, shut off your suit somehow so they could-”

“Tony, relax.” His eyes searched over Tony’s shoulder for some excuse that didn’t involve Hawkeye trying to kill him briefly. “See that power line over there?”

Peter pointed toward a large power cord that was buzzing on the ground outside the building. “I was swinging down and I accidently hit that and it shorted out my suit. I just came in here to wait for it to turn back on.”

Tony stared at him blankly. “You’re serious?”

“Yes! That’s all. I promise.”

Tony put a hand on his face. “Peter, you almost gave me a heart attack. I honestly thought something had happened to you and I was too late to stop it.”

“Nothing happened, Tony. I’m okay. Just one small mistake.”

Tony sighed, squeezing Peter’s shoulder. “You mind if we head home now? I wanna take a look at that suit and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Peter smiled. “Will you let me say no?”

“No.”

“Then fine.”

But as Peter gripped the Iron Man suit on the way back to the compound, one thing that he said earlier was at the front of his mind.

_ Love makes people crazy. _

Peter had gone to one of the worst off cities on the planet after thinking he’d lost everyone he’d ever loved. Hawkeye had almost killed him because he’d lost his whole family. And Tony freaked out and got in the Iron Man suit anytime he thought something was remotely wrong with Peter.

Because he loved him. 

Tony Stark  _ loved him. _

That thought made him cling a little tighter. Because he loved Tony right back.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I still firmly believe Clint wouldn't kill a kid even on his five-year murder spree.  
> Side Note: It pains me to say that part 5 of the Vanishing Acts series will be the last. But it WILL have multiple chapters and include aspects of all the parts before it. Stay tuned!


End file.
